Review: Bbuona Pizza Bar

You might recognise the restaurant featured in this review, Bbuona Pizza Bar, under its former name, Buonjourno e Buonosera. In fact, when I visited to try out their pizza at Gloucester Green in July, the rebrand was imminent. I don’t believe too much has changed beyond the decor, and it’s been a while since I came at you with a pizza review, so I wanted to share our thoughts with you!

As a pretty traditional style pizzeria, Bbuona Pizza Bar isn’t on board with the vegan cheese, but there are plenty of labelled vegan options on the menu (I’m informed there’s even a vegan croissant in the mornings if you’re looking to grab breakfast on the way to work). All of their pizzas are available on a gluten-free base for an extra £2 so they’re doing a pretty good job at being inclusive. Vegans are easily well catered for among the appetisers, but being there for a light lunch we were brought out a platter of three of their vegan pizzas straight away.

Unfortunately for me, I hadn’t anticipated that all of the pizzas would come absolutely laden with olives. I’m clearly not quite a grown-up yet as I can’t stand them and spent some time flicking them off of my half of the pizzas (very embarassing, pro-tip for next time is to request no olives when ordering)! The first of the pizzas we tried was the Contadina. The dough was topped with tomato and slices of sweet pepper, as well as ample olives which I avoided. This pizza was very sweet. The dough was fluffy and light, but crisp on the edges, and a joy to eat. It was a little messy as the pizzas were served together on a wooden platter without any side plates, though I’m not sure if this is how they’d come if you ordered a full-sized one to yourself.

Second up was the Vegana, with an artichoke cream instead of tomato sauce, topped with spinach, broccoli and cherry tomatoes. This was tangier and much less sweet than the first pizza, with a hint of bitterness coming from the greens. I was really excited to try the artichoke cream, which had a mild flavour and made sure the pizza was far from dry. Nice to see something a bit different from the standard tomato base.

Lastly, we were served a version of the Aglio e Olio, a very garlicky olive oil pizza, with added porcini mushrooms. I have to say this one was my favourite, the flavours reminded me of creamy mushroom soup. The mushrooms had a meaty texture and the flavour along with the garlic packed a punch. As you’d expect from the name, it was pretty oily, but not in the way of a greasy takeaway pizza. It felt like all the ingredients were decent quality and these had put together with care.

The cafe was really busy on a hot summer lunchtime, inside and out, and the staff seemed to know a lot of the people coming in for food which I took to be a good sign as it means people like to come back again and again. Loads of sunlight streamed into the building – it was too hot to sit outside – and we enjoyed the buzzy atmosphere. Service was quick so I’d definitely recommend popping in on a lunchtime and treating yourself.

Have you been to Bbuona Pizza Bar/Buonjourno e Buonosera? They have a branch in Headington and Baker Street, London, too! Where is your favourite place to get pizza in Oxford?

This meal was complimentary, this is my honest account of the experience.